What if we told you Rome It’s between eleven o’clock greener European metropolis, would you believe it? It must first be defined as “green”: the European Environment Agency studied the percentage of surface area of ​​European capitals covered by trees and carried out surveys from above since 2018. Statesmen say Rome is the eighth city on the list. The sycamores, maples, and chestnuts include the Italian capital – which also started a tree census in July, which will be completed next year and will survey more than the current approx. 315 thousand trees – has already been the main agricultural community in all of Europe, with fifty thousand hectares of land and eighteen protected areas, for a total of 85 thousand hectares of greenery, 67% of the territory of the municipality (total approx. 129 thousand hectares).
Excellent numbers, but they were not enough to defeat Roma Oslo in terms of the percentage of trees on its territory. The capital of Norway, which banned cars at the end of 2019, is 72% covered by greenery. It is estimated that 95% of Oslo residents have greenery within three hundred meters of their home, such as Slottparken surrounding the royal palace.
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However, the data does not agree. In 2020, real estate agency analysis Basic Housing saw Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome as the greenest cities in Europe on a list that included Milan and Prague Oslo, Bern, and Ljubljana – the top of the list European Environment Agency – they didn’t even count. Yes, Bern – the capital of Switzerland, where you can walk over six kilometers along the banks of the Aare – is second, ahead of Ljubljana and Berlin, with its parks (have you ever heard of the Schlosspark in Charlottenburg near the palace or the Tiergarten with lime trees?).
During the Second World War, the Tiergarten was bombed, the trees were felled and became firewood, and the land was used to grow potatoes to help the Berliners cope with the harsh winter. Following Madrid – which announced in August 2020 the creation of 600 hectares of parkland, including holly and strawberry oaks, elms, chestnuts, pines, olive trees, and oleanders, to absorb 170 thousand tons of CO2 from this “green belt” -, Brussels and Athens where the National Garden near the Parliament and Syntagma Square has over 160,000 square meters of greenery and contains more than 500 species of plants.
Below is the complete ranking of greener European metropolia (percentage of cities covered by trees in parentheses):
- Oslo – Norway (72%)
- Bern – Switzerland (53%)
- Ljubljana – Slovenia (50%)
- Berlin – Germany (44%)
- Madrid – Spain (39%)
- Brussels – Belgium (37%)
- Vienna – Austria (34%)
- Rome – Italy (24%)
- Paris – France (20%)
- Athens – Greece (11%)
- Nicosia – Cyprus (4%)
